Book Case Love

I don't have much to show you but I thought I'd just show you my book case.
All these books used to be spread out on my Expedit of Colour but I have changed my mind about that and I've put them all together in a Bookcase of Colour.

That's all.
:D


Actually, that's not all - if I wasn't going to organise in colour I  might like a book case like this.

Good Friday 2013

How sweet to have an extra gathering of our church family to start our Easter celebrations today!
How lovely to have a day to take a break from work and all the normal demands of everyday life!

So, instead of washing, I made gluten-free hot cross buns.
Instead of cleaning, the kids and I decorated eggs (emptied for scrambled eggs this morning).

This is a good, Good Friday.
:D

A Few Things Found

Last week Ania Dąbrowska, aka Finnabair or Finn, taught a couple of classes right here in Sydney and I had the absolute pleasure of almost 9 hours of creative arty goodness.*

Even though I have known about these classes since half way through last year I still didn't know what photo I was going to use until two days before. But then, when I found the photo, I knew it was the one! It was a gorgeous photo** of my Dad's mother - a Polish beauty - and I don't know much else about it. I think it could have been taken 100 years ago!

Everything started to fall into place... Polish art teacher... Polish paternal grandmother... found objects from father. A work of art with lots of meaning - I like that!

My Dad collects bits and pieces from the road when he goes on his walks around Ballina - he picks up everything from nuts and bolts to wallets and jewellery, from car parts and kids' toys to iPods and phones.***

Northern Star Newspaper cutting on my fridge

When I went to visit Dad and Mum last November, Dad showed me his workshop. It was a treasure trove of found objects. There was a mobile made from tow bar covers hanging in one corner and a couple of arrangements glued onto boards sitting on the workbench. I don't think there has ever been a time when Dad hasn't been making something or collecting something.****

I sifted through Dad's collection of bits and pieces with delight. And purpose. I knew I would be doing one of Finn's steam punk-type layouts and wanted to tap into this seemingly never-ending stream of goodies. I nabbed a few pieces and tucked them away in my suitcase, hoping that my carry-on baggage would not be overweight. With another two 'loads' delivered to me I had plenty of choice when it came to doing the class.

Only in November Mum had announced, "When Dad dies I'm going to throw all this rubbish out!" 

But then, the other day Mum was ruing the fact that her own mother had thrown away many of the lovely things that her father had created and she said, "You can keep Dad's rubbish."*****

I told Mum that I had a special surprise for her coming soon using some of Dad's 'rubbish'.

"Thanks for sending Dad's rubbish back to me! It must be special to send it." Mum replied. 

I gave a Mum and Dad a sneak peak of the layout over Skype the other day and Mum said "Ok, you can send that!" Little did Mum know how beautiful Dad's rubbish could look! 

******














* A huge thank you to Peg for making it possible for me to do the classes. It was fun sharing the time together. ** and one of a rare few
*** If you have lost something in Ballina pop me off an email, my Dad may just have found it! Speaking of which - a baby bracelet with a girl's name on it.
**** I may have inherited his genes.
***** Yhess!!!
****** That's just to say it's the end of the post!

Insomnia

O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frightened thee,
That thou no more will weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
― William Shakespeare

Hormones! O vile hormones!
You steal my sleep and wreak havoc on my soul.
Once you were precious, the creator and sustainer of life,
But now you remind me of my age, you forecast the end.
Hormones begone!
Relieve me from this living death and give me the craving of my soul.

― Diane Sylvester

I remember

Uralla Cemetery, Sunday, 21 September 2008 6:37 AM

If you go to the cemetery in a little town called Uralla you might see a headstone under a cluster of gum trees engraved with a poem.

BILLY-JEAN

She left us ere we knew her

Yet we loved her from the start.

She’s now with God in heaven

And she’s with us in our hearts. 

We will not see her growing

Nor kiss her pretty face,

But we’ll always have her memory

And in our hearts a place.

We’ll see her soon in glory,

United we will be.

That hope will ever keep us

Until with her we’ll be.

DH chose this spot to bury our little girl, Billy-Jean, born too early to live.
There are no what-ifs, no could-have-beens. That would be nonsense!
But today, 20 years on, I remember.

That's all.

Better Late Than Never!

Back in November, I did what I do each year in either September or November, I took a photo a day (or, at least one photo a day).

I found, much to my dismay, that Picasa doesn't work on a Mac the way I am used to, and so I have resorted to the quickest option I could find - emailing the photos to myself from iPhoto, ten at a time! I don't know if I had chosen a different method I could include more photos. Oh well.

But then I find that the collage doesn't stay in a collage :(

So, after a few more hours and a number of downloaded and then deleted collage-making apps, I have finally resorted to paying money for a collage app that does what I want - and easily.

Without further ado, here is a collage of my November photos.

It's not all of them but a goodly selection.
Enjoy!
:D

Have I ever told you...?

...that I like cleaning kitchens?
Well, I do. Ovens and stove tops, in particular! I really, really like cleaning ovens and stove tops. I find it very satisfying.

I remember, many years ago, watching my Mum emerge from a filthy oven in a rental house we lived in, dripping with perspiration (it's hard work, you know!) and being horrified at how people could let their oven get that way. Little did I know back then that I would actually enjoy the task of cleaning what others left unclean.*

I have noticed that it really doesn't take very long for an oven or a stove top to get quite dirty. And I reckon a good clean once a year is as good as an OCD wipe down every time you use it! I fit into the former for the oven and maybe the latter for the current stove top - but that is only because it is a glass top, which makes it very easy to clean.

Here are some before and after pics - You may recognise your stove!

There's this stove top! (Sucks in air!)

Which ended up like this. Phew!

Knobs are interesting. There's not much difference between this...

 and this. But...

this is what's underneath.

In one rental place we lived in they'd put a new sink in but they didn't take off the protective coating. The mould was thriving in and around that protective coating so I got stuck into it.

The result - nice shiny, clean stainless steel.

Oven doors are relatively easy to clean. From this...

to this. It's no trick of lighting!

Gas stove tops are easier to clean than electric coil hot plates and their surrounds.

Oh, the joy of taking something like this...

and making it like this.

Ok. There is just one thing I'd like to tell you.
Never, ever, use one of these - the coarse stainless steel scratchy kind.

Cos this is what happens - severe, irreparable damage. It reminds me of an ad that used to be on tv years and years ago that showed an ice skate spinning around scratching into the ice which turned into a 'harsh cleaner' on a stove top.

So, what do I use to clean ovens and stove tops?
Three things - steel wool soap pads, paint scraper; and a screwdriver. Four things - Water!
Oh, and elbow grease!
That's all.
Please don't use chemical oven cleaners - those oven cleaners are toxic.  I think I have lost two pregnancies to oven cleaner. :(

So there you go.
Congratulations if you got this far!

:D

*I'm talking about kitchens. I'm a fan of most cleaning but I'm not a fan of cleaning toilets. Just sayin'.

Christmas Thoughts

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! 

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.*

Philippians 2:5-11

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

Jesus, who created the world and everything in it with a word, humbled himself and came to earth as a baby and had to learn how to speak. (Andrew East)

Jesus humbled himself to the death we deserve, so that we can have the life we don't deserve. (Rick Lewers)

*If you would like to listen to this in song you can listen here** or come along to our church some time :)

**I haven't posted it in my blog because I am not sure of the copyright conditions.

I'm here, I'm here, Jo!

That title has little to do with this post except to state that I have not fallen off the face of the earth or vanished into thin air. :)

I did this layout way back in 2006 for the Scrap 52 Challenge. At the time this slightly avant garde (for me anyway) layout was a representation of my head exploding with creative ideas. In those days I did at least 2 layouts a week. Phew!

Today this layout could represent my head exploding with all the information exploding from my brain and keeping me awake at night and in the early hours of the morning writing blog posts and emails and thinking about what to do and how to do it.

What has caused this sudden disruption to the unexciting, but highly sleep-conducive, brain waves I had before Saturday 25 November, 2012?

I'll tell you.

I went to the the Low Carb Nutrition Seminar presented by Low Carb Australia and Nourishing Australia. I went because my friend wanted someone to go with her and I have an interest in my health and my family’s health. I did, however, have a negative view (from ignorance rather than knowledge) of the Paleo Diet and thought I might be somewhat bored by the day.

How wrong was I?!?! And that is why my brain is busting!

I want to keep a record of my thoughts, findings, health and anything else related and I've decided to do that in a blog - Woo Woo To Wow Wow*.

"How did you come up with a name like that?" you may well ask. 

Again, I'll tell you. :)

One of the speakers at the Seminar, Sarah Wilson, used the term "woo woo" to describe how people might think about all this stuff about low carbs and high fat and thyroid and heart disease and so on. I like "woo woo" so I am going to take "woo woo" and show how "wow wow" will be the results. :)

If you want to read about my family's and my journey from healthlessness to healthfulness then you can follow Woo Woo To Wow Wow. If not, you can just ignore this post and I will return to regular (in the sense of normal) posts on this blog from now on.

*I haven't even written a post yet (except in my head in the middle of the night) but you'll know where to find it when I do!

After Ruark Lewis and other things

I have been using my Walls Notebook (which I first saw on Lori Vliegen's blog) for quite some time now. I mostly use it for taking notes at church but every so often I do a little rendition to highlight my notes so I thought I'd give you a little peek at what I've done in it so far

I'll start with what I did the other day...
Susannah and I headed down to the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre where I was introduced to (and instantly inspired by) the work of Ruark Lewis.

Here's 1 Corinthians 12:13 Ruark Lewis style.

1 Corinthians 12:13

And here are the other (word escapes me)...

1 Thessalonians 5:13

Matthew 18:15-35

Also Matthew 18:15-35

Not sure where this was from - probably the Matthew reference.

John 12:1-16

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Zephaniah 1:7 - A little bit Ruark Lewis style

Zephaniah 3:17